Shane MacGowan Quotes

• The most important thing to remember about drunks is that drunks are far more intelligent than non-drunks- they spend a lot of time talking in pubs, unlike workaholics who concentrate on their careers and ambitions, who never develop their higher spiritual values, who never explore the insides of their head like a drunk does.

  Shane MacGowan

  Spiritual, Work, Drinking

  132 Copy quote

• Cram as much pleasure as you can into life, and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result.

  Shane MacGowan

  Pain, Suffering, Pleasure

  1997 In Loaded, Nov.

  47 Copy quote

• I'm just following the Irish tradition of songwriting, the Irish way of life, the human way of life. Cram as much pleasure into life, and rail against the pain you have to suffer as a result. Or scream and rant with the pain, and wait for it to be taken away with beautiful pleasure . . .

  Shane MacGowan

  Beautiful, Pain, Taken

  58 Copy quote

• I drink because I'm thirsty.

  Shane MacGowan

  Drink, Thirsty

  48 Copy quote

• You can’t hate people unless you love them.

  Shane MacGowan

  Hate, People, Hate People

  29 Copy quote

• Everyone drinks..........Well, unless they don't.

  Shane MacGowan

  Drink, Wells

  26 Copy quote

• I'm not so much a rock star, d'ya know what I mean? I play Irish music. There's really no age when you stop playing Irish music. Even if I retired from playing onstage, I'd still be singing in pubs.

  Shane MacGowan

  Stars, Mean, Play

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  12 Copy quote

• I've been a babe magnet for quite a while now.

  Shane MacGowan

  Babe, Magnet

  31 Copy quote

• There have been many happy days and many unhappy ones in my life, but the most important was the day I met my missus, who is sometimes estranged and sometimes not. She got me off smack - although that's not the main reason it's the happiest moment.

  Shane MacGowan

  Important, Unhappy, Happy Day

  Source: www.theguardian.com

  12 Copy quote

• There's an art to playing live. It's a great feeling. It's indescribable. It's what I love. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.

  Shane MacGowan

  Art, Feelings, Enjoy

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  9 Copy quote

• There is drinking in lots of the songs because there is drinking in life. Drinking stimulates the imagination.

  Shane MacGowan

  Song, Drinking, Imagination

  15 Copy quote

• Irish music is guts, balls and feet music, yeah? It's frenetic dance music, yeah? Or it's impossibly sad like slow music, yeah? Yeah? And it also handles all sorts of subjects, from rebel songs to comical songs about sex, you know what I mean, yeah? Which I don't think people realize how much innuendo there is in Irish music.

  Shane MacGowan

  Song, Sex, Mean

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  12 Copy quote

• All I can do is go by the words of Christ, who was the only talker we had, for f - 's sake. Buddha didn't speak. The Holy Ghost didn't speak. But I think it all boils down to the same thing - it's all about unity, love, compassion.

  Shane MacGowan

  Thinking, Compassion, Unity

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  7 Copy quote

• The only politician anybody ever believed was Kennedy, anyway. Kennedy, Martin Luther King - civil rights always turns out in bloody war. Where's his dream now? When is a change going to come - as Sam Cooke said - for blacks in America? Anyone who does tell the truth gets a bullet in the head, y'know what I mean?

  Shane MacGowan

  Dream, Kings, War

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  19 Copy quote

• When I'm writing a song, it gives me more actual pleasure to hear someone else sing it than do it meself.

  Shane MacGowan

  Song, Writing, Giving

  14 Copy quote

• My mother was a champion Irish dancer and singer and most of my family were musical, particularly in Irish dancing. Music is all about spewing out your emotions. A mixture of a good tune and a good beat and everyone playing their guts out and something that grabs people's attention.

  Shane MacGowan

  Mother, Dancing, Dancer

  Source: www.theguardian.com

  14 Copy quote

• I'm not going to waste my time trying 'break' America, you know what I mean? Too many people have died trying to break America. America doesn't break unless it wants to.

  Shane MacGowan

  Mean, America, People

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  7 Copy quote

• I play Irish popular music, yeah? Calling it folk is like putting it in a box. It's a living tradition, you know?

  Shane MacGowan

  Play, Calling, Tradition

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  9 Copy quote

• I don't believe in the Holy Trinity - but I do believe in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spook is just a friendly way of saying Holy Ghost.

  Shane MacGowan

  Believe, Friendly, Way

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  14 Copy quote

• Petitions are ridiculous.

  Shane MacGowan

  Ridiculous, Petitions

  8 Copy quote

• With The Pogues, at least the first three albums I'll stand by completely, yeah? Because I was in artistic control then, yeah? And the last couple of albums I'll stand by anything that's got my name on it, yeah? But I'll stand by anything that is on The Popes' albums, you know? I wouldn't put stuff out that I didn't like. I don't put out bad music. And I can tell the difference. I know that.

  Shane MacGowan

  Couple, Names, Differences

  18 Copy quote

• I hate the bloody highways. I hate hamburgers, I hate Greyhound buses. I'd have liked to have been in America during the Jazz Age, or the Golden Age of Hollywood.

  Shane MacGowan

  Hate, America, Age

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  4 Copy quote

• What I do is I'm a bandleader, frontman, entertainer.

  Shane MacGowan

  Entertainers

  9 Copy quote

• Wrestling used to be interesting. There was a bit of sham involved, of course, but there was some real wrestling involved. They're just characters now. It's unrecognizable. There's no fighting in American bloody wrestling. They just yell at each other and jump around like overweight ballet dancers.

  Shane MacGowan

  Real, Character, Wrestling

  Source: shanemacgowan.com

  11 Copy quote

• My dad has no control over who works with me. Me, me and me alone has to take responsibility for anything.

  Shane MacGowan

  Dad, Responsibility, Take Me

  7 Copy quote

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